Blogmas days 19 - 24, 2016: Merry Christmas!!!!

Halloooooooo!

As you can tell from the title, the last week of blogmas was a bit of a blur. With moving house, meeting up with friends, unpacking and looking for a job, blogmas bumped over. Mainly because catching up with friends I hadn't seen in months contains a lot of talking and isn't really interesting blogging material. Unpacking a million boxes and trying to organise my bedroom isn't particular interesting either, so that kind of left me a bit with no material to post... Hence the combined days :)

I did do a few fun bits worth mentioning. Like going to see Sing on the big screen, eating my last Advent calendar chocolats and this evening we're going to see Inferno!

Trailer of Sing

I hope you've all had a lovely Christmas eve and day, if you celebrate. If not, I hope you've had a splendid day!:)

Thanks for reading another year of blogmas!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 18, 2016: Moving day...

Hallooooooooo!

There absolutely isn't much I can say or show for today. I moved house. Country to be a bit more precise.

My parents arrived at my door around 9am. We then started packing the last bits and pieces in the mini van my parents came in and packed the last loose bits and bobs that were still laying around my room. Around 12pm everything was packed and we were ready to go. Of course I couldn't keep it dry... From Peckham we drove to Ashford to do a bit of (window)shopping and eat a pizza to then drive on to the Eurotunnel.

And once we arrived on the mainland, I fell asleep until we got home around 10.30pm. I made sure I made my bed with the pillows I've bought in Asda before I left. Any tiny bed to reminds me of my life in London will be visible in my near surroundings...

And that is it for today's post. As I've said, there isn't much to say or show..

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 17, 2016: A last day in London

Halloooooooo!!!

As the title suggests, today was my last day in London. I didn't do much besides packing up my room and going to London Bridge/Borough Market to buy Krispy Kreme donuts for my sister ^^

But apperently the Krispy Kreme stall in London Bridge is gone... So then the next thing to do was to go to Liverpool Street... Hup on the bus, but not before I had taken a picture of the Shard...

It was so misty x)

Once I got to Liverpool Street, I went straight to the donut shop, but is was closed as well! Just my luck hein? Ah well, so be it. I texted my sister that it wasn't going to be for this time whilst I was making my way to the station exit. And then my eye fell upon the Krispy Kreme sign! There was a pop up stand! Apparently the section of the station where the shop is located is going to change and all the stores there need to be closed. So until there is a new shop, Krispy Kreme has a pop up stall in the station. What a lovely surprise for my sister ^^

As I was in that part of the city, I decided to go to Spitalfield market. I wanted to see if there were any good books on the book stall :) And of course to take a picture of the Christmas tree ^^

And before I knew it, I had bought a hat at another stall. I've been looking for a hat for so long. And I planned to buy it from ebay, but didn't do it as you really need to try on a hat before you buy it. And then, today, on my very last day in this city, I found one! So yeah, I didn't hesitate and bought without a second thought ^^

After Spitalfield market I went home to finish some packing. And then I had to get ready to go to Martin's birthday party in Hammersmith :) It was such a fun evening! Full of dancy and laughing. Perfect way to spend my last evening in London. Perfect goodbye drinks of some sort, but not really goodbye drinks, but my last night anyway. It was just a lot of fun ^^

Got home at a decent hour, but went straight to bed as I had a long day ahead on Sunday. Yes, I'm writing this post a bit later x)

But all in all, I had a really nice last day in this city I called home for the past 3 years... I will be back.

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 16, 2016: Fantastic Beasts AND Rogue One in one day!?

Hallooooo!!

Ooooh yes, today 2 'fandoms' collided. If you don't know already, I'm not bound to one type of movie, let alone the 'fans' coming with it. Although Harry Potter does take up a little bit more space due to the fact I literally grew up with the characters, I do love Middle Earth, Narnia, Regency Era in England (with or without zombies), time travel to 1745 Scotland, the Shadow World, Cornwald in Poldark's time, etc as much as the next fan of the movie genre or TV show.

Today, two of those 'collide'. And with collided, I mean, I switched from one mindset to the other rather quickly :)

One of my ex colleagues had given me a free admittion ticket to any 2D movie at Odeon cinema knowing how much I love going to the movies. So, seeing that yesterday Rogue One was released, I decided to go see it in an Odeon cinema in central London.

Mind you, I had first in mind to go see Fantastic Beast again. As I was in central London, I wanted to take the opportunity to go to the Minalima House in Soho. You know, the two artists who design the wizarding world of Harry Potter, and now Fantastic Beasts? It seemed only fitting to go see Fantastic Beast afterwards :) But, then a friend reminded me that I had already seen that one and it would be much better to spend the free ticket on a film I hadn't seen yet. She had a point, but you know, nothing is better than being fully emerged in a world for an entire day. I did the same for Cinderella. First I went to see the pop up exhibition on Leicester Square to then see the movie, again, in the Odeon on Leicester Sq :) The Real Glass Slipper, Downton Abbey and the Travel Book Co in Notting Hill

So first, Minalima House. 3 stories of beautiful art work, wishing I could afford any of it and ending up buying some more post cards to frame :) 26 Greek St, Soho, London W1D 5DE, UK

From there I walked to Odeon Tottenham Court Road to see Rogue One.

It was such a splendid movie! As a Star Wars fan, I got the easter eggs, I loved the story and how complex the characters are, simply fell in love again with Felicity Jones's acting abilities and boy did Diego Luna and the rest of the cast deliver! K2 is an excellent addition to my list of favourite droids and I just can't wait for it to be released on DVD so I can see it again and again and again!

Although it might have been nicer to have a completely themed day, this combination certainly worked as well :) And it is good to know that I can switch so easily. Usually I can only deal with one film franchise, tv series or book (series) at a time :)

And that is it for today! Has anyone seen Fantastic Beast and Where to Find Them or Rogue One: a Star Wars story?

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 15, 2016: 'Real to Reel: A Century of War movies' at the Imperial War museum

Hallooooo!

Like most of my previous days, today started off pretty slow. Waking up, breakfast, spending a 1000hours watching videos on YouTube... But eventually I made it out of the house and on to a bus!

Real to Reel
Back in October, when my parents came to visit me, we went to the Imperial War museum. It is free, like the majority of the musea in London. But, as per usual, there is also a temporarily exhibition for which you have to pay. Imperial War museum is no different.

In this case it is the 'Real to Real: A Century of War movies'. And me, being a film enthousiast, wanted to see it. But time was against us, back in October. So I had to go back another time. Today was that day.

Although War movies aren't my favourite genre of movie, I do see them and I do appreciate them. I think it is important not to get too cought up in an alternate universe where everyone gets a happy ending and where war or other violent issues are no issue at all... And when I say 'I think it is important', I mean it is important for me.

So many movies are very much over the top, others have a love story as a red line through out and others are just plain brutal but closest to reality. If you even can translate the horrors of war to the silver screen...

The exhibition covered the importance of war movies, how they came to be (it all began with the Batte of the Somme, World War I), what they tell us, what they mean, how we can interpret them, etc. The question was asked if they are propaganda, how they can portray the 'enemy' in a certain way, is it because of the director, writers, politics, etc. How Disney got involved during WWII,... It was a really interesting exhibition. Sunday 8th January 2017 is the last days, so you can still go ;)

They cover all type of movies: from old to the most recent, from a most realistic approach to a more seduced approach, love stories involved, etc... Schindler's List, Saving Private Ryan, Eye from the Sky, Lawrence of Arabia, War Horse, Battle of the Somme, Hitler: the last 10 days, Atonment,... Just to name a few.

They show a diary written by Alec Guinness during the filming of Hitler: the Last 10 days and how it affected him. The costumes that Liam Neeson wore in Schindler's List and James McAvoy in Atonment are displayed, film fragments are shown, photographs, story bords, etc. If you're a film geek like me, you'll spent a long time in there. I think it took me about 2hours, if not a bit more...

I eventually found my way out and made my way home. In the evening I had my combat saber class (my last one :( ). And that is it for blogmas day 15! :)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 14, 2016: Another Jane Austen walking tour

Halloooooo!

As the sky was blue I just had to get out and enjoy London! And what better way to do so than walking a tour? A Jane Austen tour to be precise. If you've been reading this blog for a while, you might remember I've done something similar a few weeks ago. Unlike today, the weather was absolutely horrendous. But then again, grey clouds or blue sky, it doesn't really matter to me :)

So, early afternoon I set off towards city centre. Trafalgar square to be exact. From there I'd walk to Somerset House where the tour would officially start.

On my way to Somerset house I, of course, started to take pictures immediately. The weather was just too nice not to take advantage of it.

At Somerset House I did a bit of people watching. Ice skaters to be exact. This location is used in Love Actually so it was a win-win as I saw something new AND a film location :)

Then I took a little detour to Twinings: selling point of teas since 1706. As Jane Austen did buy tea in this shop, it fits perfectly in the tour ;)

From there I cotinued the tour, passing Covent Garden and St Lincoln's inn square, where I found film locations of Penelope and some beautiful Turdo architerture. Hidden gems in the city!

And to finish the day, and this may seem a bit odd, I walked into Hamley's, a 6 floor kid's store on Regent Street. And with the release of Rogue One: a Star Wars story just around the corner, there was of course plenty of Star Wars to behold ^^

And from there I took the bus home, had dinner and watch YouTube videos for a long long time x)

And that is it for today! Not really Christmassy, but it's Jane Austen, so I don't really mind ^^

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 13, 2016: a day of watching films

Hallooooooo!

After all my excursion of the pat few days, I just didn't feel like going out today. So I didn't. I did do some household chores and watched 3 films! The back-up plan, What is your number and Angus, thongs and perfect snogging. All feel good and, well, the latter was very young adults/ teenage aimed, so didn't think it was very good. But hey well, I saw it, so that is 2 hours of my life I'm not going to get back, so why regret it, hein?

Here are the trailers. Out of the 3, I think What is your number was 'the best', simply because Captain America and Star Lord are featured in it x)

The Backup Plan

What's your number?

Angus, thongs and perfect snogging

Thanks for 'reading' :)
xo - Sara

Blogmas day 12, 2016: There and back again to Winchester

Hallooooo!!

As you might recall, on my trip through England I had a brief stop in Winchester to visit Jane Austen's grave. It was soon very clear to me that just visiting the cathedral wouldn't be enough so I decided then and there that I was to return in the next week or two.

And today, on Monday 12th December I made it! I'd got up quite early to catch a train to Winchester between 8am and 9am. Of course, I didn't have the time to eat breakfast before I left, so I made sure I had something to eat on the train. It was about an hour ride, so not too bad, but still needed some entertainment.

It was very cloudy when I left London and by the time I had arrived in town it was drizzling which didn't stop for the entire day. 

My main focus was to spend a bit of time in the cathedral. Film the bits I wasn't able to film when I was on my 7day route trip. I also wanted to do a Jane Austen tour especially desigend for rainy weather and then take in some Tudor history, because guess what? The Tudors where here...

The Jane Austen in the rain tour soon turned out to be a fail. Across the city there were supposed to be quote hidden that would have been became visible when it rained. As the quotes were on the pavement, it meant that if the quote was situated on a location with high footfall the quote would be gone really quickly. I've mananged to find one, but just. It was clear that the activity was on its last legs... But I did see the house where Jane eventually died. One of the first colleges in England founded by a certain gentleman by the name Wyckham, was next door, so I saw that as well. So I did see a bit more from Winchester :)
 

As I've said earlier, I had spent some more time inside the cathedral. My entrance ticket is valid for 12 months, so hey, why not use it hein? :)

After the cathedral I wandered around for a bit and I found the Round Table of King Arthur. Pretty cool as well :)

Got some lunch at a tiny café off the main shopping street. By the time it was dark, I did a little bit of shopping. A bit of Christmas shopping and a little bit for myself :)

Jane Austen's house

Here just a few pictures of Winchester by night, eventhough it wasn't that late.

Between 5 and 6 I had the train back to London Waterloo so by 7.30pm I was home :) It was such a good day! Rainy and cold but so good. Perfect last Monday in the UK ;)

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara  

Blogmas day 11, 2016: Another film location hunt. Now on Southbank

Hallooooooo!

Main objective of today was plain and simple: find the film locations for Bridget Jones, Man Up and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. Happy to say that I've found all the photos that I wanted to find :) Below a few examples:

I took the bus to Borough Market. At Borough Market I found the locations for Bridget Jones, Man Up and Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban. From there I took the Jubilee line to Waterloo station to then walk towards the Thames to look for more of the Man Up film locations.

The sunset was gorgeous.

From Parlement Square I took a but to Oxford Street. I had seen black boots from Clarks on their website and I wanted to see if they had them in store for me to try on. I've been looking for that type of shoe for soooo long. They usually are too chunky. Not with Clarks :) I ended up trying the right size, but wrong colour in 3 different stores... So I ended up buying them online x) At least I know that I have the correct shoe size and I can finally throw away the similar but very cheap boots that offer no support to my feet what so ever.

Anyway, after running around on Oxford Street I was in desperate need of a hot chocolate and head home!

All in all, Sunday was a very productive day :) Film locations, a pair of new shoes I've been looking for for so long, a hot chocolate and the most beautiful sunset. Aaah London. You have my heart.

Thanks for reading!
xo - Sara